The District of Columbia is our federal city.
Senate Committee Passes Bill
A Senate committee easily passed a bill yesterday that would give the District its first full seat in the House of Representatives, sending it to the full chamber for a crucial vote expected in the next few weeks or months.
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Two of the three Republicans present -- Susan Collins (Maine) and George V. Voinovich (Ohio) -- backed the bill.
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McCain said that the bill violated the Constitution's provision that House representatives be chosen by "the people of the several states," since the District is not a state.
"I think it's unconstitutional," he said. He added, "If the District of Columbia deserves a member of the House of Representatives, they deserve two senators as well."
Many Republicans have been wary that the bill could lead to two D.C. seats in the Senate, which would probably give Democrats a significant boost. The question of constitutionality has elicited differing opinions from legal scholars. If the bill becomes law, it is expected to face an immediate legal challenge.
Supporters at the hearing argued that the bill would right a historical wrong.
Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.), who was recently appointed to fill President Barack Obama's Senate seat, said he became aware of the D.C. vote issue when he attended the Howard University School of Law in the early 1960s.
"It's about time we get some representation for the District of Columbia," he said.
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Democrats hold a 58 to 41 advantage in the Senate. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she believed the bill had the 60 Senate supporters necessary to overcome a filibuster.
"Our people can virtually taste this vote," she said.
The composition of the House of Representatives is described in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution:
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second
Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall
have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of
the State Legislature.
There are ways that the district could be represented in Congress. One such way is through a non-voting member which currently is Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton in the House.
Another, retrocession, ceding the District of Columbia back to Maryland, has been discussed, but Maryland wisely wants no part of that. The Virginia section of the District of Columbia was ceded back to Virginia in 1846 and that section known as Northern Virginia has skewed the wishes and the votes of Virginia, especially of late, much to the consternation of the rest of the state.
What is being tried now is having Congress just make the district a state. Proponents say that the district is not too small and that its population is actually bigger than Wyoming, but the citizens of Wyoming are not all employed or beholding to a monolithic employer such as the United States government and its ever growing bureaucracy of liberals. Conservatives also contend, and this is very important, if the power of Congress to "exercise exclusive legislation" over the District is used to supersede other sections of the Constitution, then the powers granted to the Congress could potentially be unlimited, but Barack Obama, a Senate co-sponsor of the "District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007" (H.R. 1433), said, during his presidential campaign, that he would sign such a bill if it was passed by the Congress while he was President.
The bottom line is that Obama and his liberal masters in Congress want to make the Democrat Party the permanent Party of the federal government. They will shred the Constitution, ignore history and bend or break laws with impunity to become that Party. Just look at the blatant power snatch using the Census and making it answerable to the White House.
As the always estimatible Eleanor Norton Holmes said, "Our people can virtually taste this vote."
